Q&A Home > C > Holy Communion In the Holy Book of 1 Corinthians 5:6-8 and throughout the Holy Bible, leavened bread is used in a negative sense. Why do we not use unleavened bread instead for Holy Communion? The Holy bread that we offer does not represent the pure life of our Lord Jesus Christ, but represents Christ the Lamb who carries the sins of the whole world. Isaiah the prophet says, "All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned, every one, to his own way; and the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all" (Is 53:6).
The leaven in the Holy Bread is the ‘iniquity of us all’ that our Lord, who is without sin, carried on the cross. When we offer the oblation in the Divine Liturgy, we offer the Lamb carrying the sins of man. Therefore we offer it with yeast. "For our sake He made Him to be sin Who knew no sin, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God" (1 Cor 5:21). Also see Holy Book of Galatians 3:13, "Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us--for it is written, "Cursed be every one who hangs on a tree."
In the early Church leavened bread was used since we read "So continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, they ate their food with gladness and simplicity of heart" (Acts 2:46). It seems unlikely that the early church had unleavened bread so readily available for the Lord’s Supper, on a daily basis, and in many houses when it was not the Passover time.
It is also interesting to note that throughout the Holy Bible there is a differentiation between ‘bread’ and ‘unleavened bread’ and nowhere in the New Testament is the mention of eating ‘unleavened bread’. So other than tying the bread to the Passover meal our Lord took, there is absolutely NO instruction as to what kind of bread to use.
In fact, the Greek word "artos" used for bread in Strong’s Concordance is shown to imply "raised" bread. In fact, that is the same word used everywhere the word BREAD appears in the New Testament.
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